FIERA MILANO SPA 
The Lombard multiutility has announced that another similar plant will be built in collaboration with Hitachi, albeit with an installed capacity half that of the one in Milan.
"We have just closed a contract with Hitachi, which has a train-building plant in Pistoia, Naples and Reggio Calabria, to build on all the roofs of their warehouses, photovoltaic systems to be used for self-consumption," said CEO Renato Mazzoncini.
"I would advise any industrialist who has a shed with production to put them in. The legislation is extremely simple because it has no environmental impact, so the procedure is very simplified," he added.
This morning, A2A, Fondazione Fiera Milano and Fiera Milano unveiled the solar plant consisting of about 50,000 photovoltaic panels, spread over 330,000 square meters of hall roofing, equal to the area of 45 soccer fields.
The facility will have an expected annual production of 21.6 GWh - equal to the consumption of about 7,800 households - which will avoid the emission of more than 9,800 thousand tons of CO2 per year and a total installed capacity of 18 MWp. The photovoltaic system will make it possible to cover part of Fiera Milano's needs, for the exhibition center in Rho, while the remaining share of the green energy generated will be fed into the grid, a joint note said.
Mazzoncini also said that thanks to the recent rains, "hydropower has finally returned to a level of normality. This is important because in Italy it makes up the bulk of renewables. For the first year in three years we are estimating production in line with the 2010-2020 average."
The recovery of hydropower allowed A2a's electricity production from renewable sources (hydro, wind, and solar) to exceed that produced by gas-fired power plants for the first time in the first quarter.
(Giancarlo Navach, editing Francesca Piscioneri)
